LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Jul 2018, Thursday

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Constructed by: Frank Virzi
Edited by: Rich Norris

Today’s Reveal Answer: Chopped Liver

Themed answers included the letter string LIVER, although the order of the letters has been “CHOPPED”, changed:

  • 53A. Metaphor for one feeling slighted … and what’s hidden in the answers to starred clues : CHOPPED LIVER
  1. 20A. *Doctor Octopus or Doctor Doom : SUPERVILLAIN
  2. 29A. *”The Big Country” Oscar winner : BURL IVES
  3. 37A. *Quick and careless treatment : ONCE-OVER-LIGHTLY
  4. 44A. *On-the-scene reporter’s opening : WE’RE LIVE …

Bill’s time: 11m 26s!

Bill’s errors: 0

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Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies

Across

1. PlayStation handheld game : VITA

The PlayStation Vita is a handheld game console that was introduced by Sony in 2011. Apparently, most of the Vita’s fans live in Japan, with the product not being well received in the rest of the world.

10. Gremlins, e.g. : AMCS

The Gremlin is a subcompact car that was made by AMC in the 1970s. The Gremlin was positioned to compete with the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto from the US, and with imports like the VW Beetle and Toyota Corona. On the list of ex-Gremlin drivers are Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush.

15. Gaucho’s rope : REATA

A gaucho is someone who lives in the South American pampas, the fertile lowlands in the southeast of South America. The term “gaucho” is also used as the equivalent of our “cowboy”.

16. World Cup skiing champ Lindsey : VONN

Lindsey Vonn is a World Champion alpine ski racer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She is one of the few women to have won World Cup races in all five alpine racing disciplines: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom and super combined. In fact, Vonn is the most successful US ski racer in history.

17. Do-fa link : … RE MI …

The solfa syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la & ti.

18. Hawkeye : IOWAN

Iowa is nicknamed the Hawkeye State in honor of Chief Black Hawk, a leader of the Sauk people during the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War.

19. A.D. part : ANNO

The Latin word for year is “annus”. We often see it used in Latin phrases, but usually with a different spelling. For example in “anno Domini”, the “anno” is the ablative case of “annus” as the phrase means “in the year of the Lord”. Another example is “per annum”, in which “annum” is the accusative case as the literal translation of the phrase is “during the year”.

20. *Doctor Octopus or Doctor Doom : SUPERVILLAIN

Otto Octavius is a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. Also known as Doctor Octopus, Octavius is primarily a foe of Spider-Man.

Doctor Doom is a supervillain created in the Marvel Comics universe, and is an archenemy of the Fantastic Four.

23. Chicago mayor Rahm : EMANUEL

Rahm Emanuel was an Illinois representative in the US House before resigning in 2009 to take up President Obama’s offer to become the White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel moved on from the White House the following year in order to run as a candidate in Chicago’s mayoral election in 2011. He won the 2011 race, and was re-elected in 2015.

24. Obdurate : STONY

Something or someone described as obdurate is persistently unbending and stubborn, usually in a bad way.

28. Nonverbal comm. method : ASL

It’s really quite unfortunate that American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL) are very different, and someone who has learned to sign in one cannot understand someone signing in the other.

29. *”The Big Country” Oscar winner : BURL IVES

As well as being an actor, Burl Ives was a folk singer, which was his original calling. In Hollywood he had a distressing experience with the House Un-American Activities Committee and avoided being blacklisted by cooperating to some level with McCarthy and his team. This cooperation created a rift between him and Pete Seeger in particular, a fellow singer whom he “discussed” with the committee.

“The Big Country” is a 1958 western with a star-studded cast including Gregory Peck, Jean Simmons, Charlton Heston and Burl Ives. The film earned Burl Ives an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor.

35. Twofer coupon acronym : BOGO

Buy one, get one (BOGO) or buy one, get one free (BOGOF).

36. “Selma” setting: Abbr. : ALA

“Selma” is a 2014 film about the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965. Directed by Ava DuVernay, the movie stars David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson.

37. *Quick and careless treatment : ONCE-OVER-LIGHTLY

To give the once-over, or indeed the once-over-lightly, is to give a quick look, to a hasty examination.

41. Freudian topic : EGO

Sigmund Freud created a structural model of the human psyche, breaking it into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is that part of the psyche containing the basic instinctual drives. The ego seeks to please the id by causing realistic behavior that benefits the individual. The super-ego almost has a parental role, contradicting the id by introducing critical thinking and morals to behavioral choices.

42. Umpteen : MANY

The word “umpty” was introduced as slang for a Morse code dash. In the early 1900’s, the same term came to mean “of an indefinite number”, and was associated with the numerals divisible by ten, i.e. twenty, thirty, forty etc. The extended adjective “umpteen”, meaning “many”, began to appear during WWI as army slang.

43. “What __ has seen … “: 1 Corinthians : NO EYE

According to the New Testament’s First Epistle to the Corinthians:

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.

48. Colleague of Sonia : ELENA

Elena Kagan was the Solicitor General of the United States who replaced Justice John Paul Stevens on the US Supreme Court. That made Justice Kagan the first female US Solicitor General and the fourth female US Supreme Court justice. I hear she is a fan of Jane Austen, and used to reread “Pride and Prejudice” once a year. Not a bad thing to do, I’d say …

49. Money-laundering business in “Breaking Bad” : CAR WASH

The AMC drama “Breaking Bad” is a well-written show about a high school teacher stricken by lung cancer who turns to a life of crime to make money. It turns out that the teacher has a talent for making high-quality crystal meth. The show was created by Vince Gilligan who had spent many years as producer and writer of “The X-Files”. There is a “Breaking Bad” spin-off show running on AMC called “Better Call Saul” that focuses on the life of lawyer Saul Goodman. I hear that it’s pretty good …

53. Metaphor for one feeling slighted … and what’s hidden in the answers to starred clues : CHOPPED LIVER

“What, am I chopped liver?” is a Jewish-American expression meaning “Why do I get overlooked”. One suggestion for the rationale behind the expression is that chopped liver was traditionally served as a side dish rather than a main course, so might be overlooked.

57. First name at Woodstock : JIMI

Many of his contemporaries regarded Jimi Hendrix as the greatest electric guitarist in the history of rock music. Hendrix was from Seattle and didn’t really have a really stellar start to his working life. He failed to finish high school and fell foul of the law by getting caught in stolen cars, twice. The courts gave him the option of the army or two years in prison. Hendrix chose the former and soon found himself in the famous 101st Airborne. In the army, his less-than-disciplined ways helped him (as he would have seen it) because his superiors successfully petitioned to get him discharged after serving only one year of his two-year requirement, just to get him out of their hair.

1969’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair was held on a dairy farm located 43 miles southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York. 400,000 young people attended, and saw 32 bands and singers perform over three days.

60. Bandanna kin : DO-RAG

Hip-hoppers might wear do-rags today, but they have been around for centuries. The etymology of “do-rag” is pretty evident: a piece of cloth (rag) to hold a hairstyle (do) in place.

A bandanna is a large kerchief that is usually worn on the head or around the neck. The term “bandanna” comes from the Hindi word meaning “to tie”.

61. Gambling mecca : RENO

The city of Reno’s economy took off when open gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931. Within a short time, a syndicate had built the Bank Club in Reno, which was the largest casino in the world at the time.

62. Yemen neighbor : OMAN

The Arabian Peninsula is shaped like a boot, with the Sultanate of Oman occupying the toe of that boot.

64. God with a bow : EROS

Eros, the Greek god of love, gives rise to our word “erotic”, meaning “arousing sexual desire”. Eros was referred to in Latin as both Amor (meaning “love”) and Cupid (meaning “desire”).

65. Ma with a bow : YO-YO

Yo-Yo Ma is a marvelous American cellist who was born in Paris to Chinese parents. Ma started studying the violin when he was very young, working his way up (in size) to the viola and finally to the cello. He has said that he wanted to play the double bass, but it was just too big for his relatively small frame.

67. Ukr. and Lith., once : SSRS

Ukraine is a large country in Eastern Europe that was a Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) before the dissolution of the USSR. In English, we often call the country “the Ukraine”, but I am told that we should say just “Ukraine”.

The nation of Lithuania is a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) sitting on the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius, and 16 miles north of Vilnius is a point that is officially recognized as the geographic center of Europe.

Down

1. Frost lines? : VERSE

The wonderful poet Robert Frost was a native of San Francisco, but lived most of life in New England. He also spent a few years in England, just before WWI. Frost was well recognized for his work during his lifetime, and received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry. He was also Vermont’s first Poet Laureate, a position that he held from 1961 until his death in 1963.

2. Intestinal part : ILEUM

The human ileum (plural “ilea”) is the lowest part of the small intestine, and is found below the jejunum and above the cecum of the large intestine.

3. Clearwater neighbor : TAMPA

The Florida city of Tampa has been known as “the Big Guava” since the seventies. The term is imitative of New York’s “Big Apple”, and refers to the unsuccessful search for the reported wild guava trees that were once hoped to be the basis of a new industry for the area. Tampa has also been called “Cigar City”, a reference to the cigar industry that fueled the area’s growth starting in the 1880s.

Clearwater is the smallest of the three main cities in the Tampa Bay Area, the others being Tampa and St. Petersburg. One of Clearwater’s claims to fame is that it is home to the worldwide spiritual headquarters of the Church of Scientology, also known as Flag Land Base.

7. Two-master : YAWL

A yawl is a two-masted sailing vessel. There is a main mast forward, and a smaller mizzen mast close to the stern. A yawl is similar to a ketch, in that both rigs have two masts. The mizzen mast is forward of the rudderpost in a ketch, and aft of the rudderpost in a yawl.

10. Forward, in Firenze : AVANTI

Florence is the capital city of the Tuscany region in Italy. Something from or related to Florence is described as “Florentine”. The city is known as “Firenze” in Italian.

11. MLK Day, e.g. : MON

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a US Federal holiday taking place on the third Monday of each year. It celebrates the birthday of Dr. King, and was signed into law by President Reagan in 1983, and first observed in 1986. However, some states resisted naming the holiday MLK Day, and gave it alternative names (like “Civil Rights Day”). It was officially celebrated as MLK Day in all 50 states from the year 2000 onwards.

12. “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” channel : CNN

Anthony Bourdain was a chef, author and television personality from New York City. Bourdain’s celebrity came with the publication of his book “Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly” in 2000. He moved on to host the television shows “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown”. Bourdain was working on an episode of “Parts Unknown” when he committed suicide in 2018, in his Paris hotel room. Sad …

13. __-Caps : SNO

Sno-Caps are a brand of candy usually only available in movie theaters. Sno-caps have been around since the 1920s, would you believe?

21. “Empire Falls” novelist Richard : RUSSO

Richard Russo’s 2001 novel titled “Empire Falls” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year. The novel was adapted into a television miniseries by HBO that aired in 2005.

22. Puerto Rico, e.g.: Abbr. : ISL

Puerto Rico (PR) is located in the northeastern Caribbean (in the Atlantic Ocean), east of the Dominican Republic. The name “Puerto Rico” is Spanish for “rich port”. The locals often call their island Borinquen, the Spanish form of “Boriken”, the original name used by the natives.

26. Singer Furtado : NELLY

Nelly Furtado is a singer from Victoria, British Columbia who was born to Portuguese parents from the Azores.

27. Belgian violin virtuoso Eugène __ : YSAYE

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist who earned the nickname “King of the Violin”. He was good friends with French composer Claude Debussy, who dedicated his only string quartet to Ysaÿe.

31. King at Versailles : ROI

Versailles is a city located just 10 miles from the center of Paris. It is famous as home to the magnificent Palace of Versailles. The palace started out as a hunting lodge built in the village of Versailles in 1624, built for Louis XIII. Louis XIII extended the lodge into a full-blown château, but it was Louis XIV who expanded it into one of the largest palaces on the planet. Louis XIV moved the royal court from Paris to Versailles starting in 1678.

32. “Camelot” composer : LOEWE

Frederick Loewe was a composer best known for his collaborations with the lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, the most famous of which were “My Fair Lady”, “Gigi” and “Camelot”.

“Camelot” is a Lerner and Loewe musical based on the legend of King Arthur. The show was first shown on Broadway in 1960 and ran for 873 performances, with Julie Andrews and Richard Burton starring. “Camelot” was made into a very successful film version that was released in 1967 starring Richard Harris as King Arthur and Vanessa Redgrave as Guinevere.

34. Gettysburg Address unit : SCORE

I admit to having profound respect and admiration for great speeches delivered by great men and great women. Forgive me as I reproduce here the full text of President Abraham Lincoln’s memorable Gettysburg Address:

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that “all men are created equal.”

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

35. Wally’s little bro : BEAV

Wally Cleaver and his younger brother “the Beaver” were the children of Ward and June Cleaver on the fifties sitcom “Leave It to Beaver”.

38. Southern Conf. school : VMI

The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is one of the six senior military colleges in the country, and is located in Lexington, Virginia. The sports teams of VMI are known as the Keydets, southern slang for “cadets”.

45. Affluent Los Angeles district : ENCINO

Encino is a district in the City of Los Angeles on the north slope of the Santa Monica Mountains. The area takes its name from a historic parcel of land called Rancho Los Encinos (Ranch of the Evergreens).

47. Nag : BADGER

To badger is to harass. The verb “to badger” comes from the cruel practice of badger-baiting, which dates back to medieval times. Badger-baiting is a blood sport in which a dog is used as bait for a badger in its den, to draw it out into the open. The den is an artificial structure built to resemble a natural badgers’ den, complete with a tunnel entrance. The dog is sent down the tunnel causing the badger and dog to lock their jaws on each other. The badger and dog are then removed from the den by pulling on the dog’s tale. Horrible …

51. Monterrey title : SENOR

Monterrey is a Mexican city, and the capital of the state of Nuevo Leon in the northeast of the country. Monterrey is the second-largest city in Mexico in terms of area, but third-largest in terms of population (the largest-area city in the country is Mexico City, and the most populous are Mexico City and Guadalajara).

52. __ Perot : H ROSS

Ross Perot graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1953, as president of his class. Perot served his 4-year commitment but then resigned his commission, apparently having become somewhat disillusioned with the navy. He was ranked number 101 on the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans in 2012, and at that time was worth about $3.5 billion. Back in 1992, Perot ran as an independent candidate for US president. He founded the Reform Party in 1995, and ran as the Reform Party candidate for president in 1996.

54. Valhalla VIP : ODIN

In Norse mythology, Valhalla (“hall of the slain”) is a gigantic hall in the “world” of Asgard. Asgard and Valhalla are ruled by the god Odin, the chief Norse god.

55. Firehouse fixture : POLE

The fireman’s pole was invented Chicago fireman Captain David B. Kenyon in 1878. That first pole was installed in a three-story firehouse, and was made of varnished pine with a coat of paraffin. When it was observed that the engine company using the pole was routinely the first to arrive at the scene of a fire, the poles were installed in all Chicago firehouses. The first brass fireman’s pole was installed in Boston.

58. “I think,” in texts : IMO

In my opinion (IMO)

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Complete List of Clues/Answers

Across

1. PlayStation handheld game : VITA
5. Appliance with a vent : DRYER
10. Gremlins, e.g. : AMCS
14. Airline to Israel : EL AL
15. Gaucho’s rope : REATA
16. World Cup skiing champ Lindsey : VONN
17. Do-fa link : … RE MI …
18. Hawkeye : IOWAN
19. A.D. part : ANNO
20. *Doctor Octopus or Doctor Doom : SUPERVILLAIN
23. Chicago mayor Rahm : EMANUEL
24. Obdurate : STONY
28. Nonverbal comm. method : ASL
29. *”The Big Country” Oscar winner : BURL IVES
32. Holds up : LASTS
35. Twofer coupon acronym : BOGO
36. “Selma” setting: Abbr. : ALA
37. *Quick and careless treatment : ONCE-OVER-LIGHTLY
41. Freudian topic : EGO
42. Umpteen : MANY
43. “What __ has seen … “: 1 Corinthians : NO EYE
44. *On-the-scene reporter’s opening : WE’RE LIVE …
47. Ball club : BAT
48. Colleague of Sonia : ELENA
49. Money-laundering business in “Breaking Bad” : CAR WASH
53. Metaphor for one feeling slighted … and what’s hidden in the answers to starred clues : CHOPPED LIVER
57. First name at Woodstock : JIMI
60. Bandanna kin : DO-RAG
61. Gambling mecca : RENO
62. Yemen neighbor : OMAN
63. Words of defeat : I LOSE
64. God with a bow : EROS
65. Ma with a bow : YO-YO
66. Not as worn : NEWER
67. Ukr. and Lith., once : SSRS

Down

1. Frost lines? : VERSE
2. Intestinal part : ILEUM
3. Clearwater neighbor : TAMPA
4. Drive away : ALIENATE
5. Blather : DRIVEL
6. Work on more, as a squeaky hinge : RE-OIL
7. Two-master : YAWL
8. “Too many to list” abbr. : ET AL
9. __ close second : RAN A
10. Forward, in Firenze : AVANTI
11. MLK Day, e.g. : MON
12. “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” channel : CNN
13. __-Caps : SNO
21. “Empire Falls” novelist Richard : RUSSO
22. Puerto Rico, e.g.: Abbr. : ISL
25. Almost round : OVATE
26. Singer Furtado : NELLY
27. Belgian violin virtuoso Eugène __ : YSAYE
29. Carried : BORNE
30. “This could get __” : UGLY
31. King at Versailles : ROI
32. “Camelot” composer : LOEWE
33. Generous donor : ANGEL
34. Gettysburg Address unit : SCORE
35. Wally’s little bro : BEAV
38. Southern Conf. school : VMI
39. Twist : GNARL
40. Prepares to steal, probably : HOT-WIRES
45. Affluent Los Angeles district : ENCINO
46. “Well, __-di-dah!” : LAH
47. Nag : BADGER
49. Desist : CEASE
50. Professes : AVERS
51. Monterrey title : SENOR
52. __ Perot : H ROSS
54. Valhalla VIP : ODIN
55. Firehouse fixture : POLE
56. Front at sea : PROW
57. Good feeling : JOY
58. “I think,” in texts : IMO
59. Might : MAY

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13 thoughts on “LA Times Crossword Answers 12 Jul 2018, Thursday”

  1. LAT: 11:51, no errors. A two-step dance for me, with “SCI FI” before “SUPER”, “GMCS” before “AMCS”, “RUN A” before “RAN A”, “RUSSI” before “RUSSO”, and “MY EYE” before “NO EYE”.

    Newsday: 7:38, no errors. WSJ: 13:28, no errors. BEQ: 22:15, no errors, but it took me longer than it should have to actually think about how the theme worked, after which things got easier – at first, I saw certain anagrams, but I didn’t understand the logic behind their formation. I also did a couple more Paolo Pasco puzzles yesterday; he’s a very clever young man! And a Cruciverb experiment left me with a copy of last Sunday’s Washington Post puzzle on paper, so I did it: 28:14, no errors, quite tedious.

  2. I hope the City of Clearwater doesn’t list the Scientology headquarters in its “claims to fame”. If anything, it should be listed in “claims to infamy”.

  3. 17:00. Never noticed the theme; I just noticed a lot of the letter “V”, and that was enough to help out. Tricky but fun solve.

    Nothing to do with the puzzle, but unable to discern my dry cleaner’s ethnicity I finally asked her yesterday. She’s Cambodian. I judged her age (60’s) and correctly guessed that she would have been there during the reign of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

    When I got her to open up a little about it, what she said was flabbergasting. She was separated from her family at age 18 for over 3 years. She worked in the rice fields from around 4 AM until roughly 8-11 PM every day. The only food they were given was a very thin rice soup. When they finished in one area, they’d walk to the next – sometimes it took them a full 5 days and nights to walk there. When she was anywhere near her parents, she’d sneak out at night, run for 2 hours to see them, her father would feed her something and she’d run back before work began the next day.

    She mentioned there were large amounts of fish in lakes etc and there were trees with fruits on them. However, if you were caught fishing or even grabbing a piece of fruit off of a tree they would just blindfold you , tell you to run, and shoot you down. She saw this many times as people were trying to survive. Many died from lack of salt and general malnutrition and/or starved to death.

    As far as I could tell, she owns and runs the dry cleaners on her own. To this day she says she never cares about work hours, personal problems, business issues…nothing. As long as she has enough to eat, nothing else bothers her, and this is a woman who always has a smile on her face.

    This is the Reader’s Digest version of the conversation that lasted about 30 minutes. It kind of puts any problems I’ve ever dealt with in perspective. Truly an amazing woman. Still shaking my head this morning over some of the things she told me.

    Best –

    1. And she is probably looked down on as a “foreigner, alien” every day of her life. When you read the Gettysburg Address, then read this – makes you kind of think …, or it should. I try to be kind to everyone, my great grandparents came over from Germany, that’s only 2 generations ago. I feel if you’re not Native American you’re an immigrant, or your grandparents were. You sound kind. Good for you.

  4. Yes, this was a doable puzzle for Thurs. But I can’t believe how long it took me to get “dryer” of all things. ( I blame it on the heat here in LA.)

    Jeff: What a fascinating story this woman has. It would be wonderful if someone, maybe the local newspaper, would do an article on her. Make for a great read/movie, etc.

  5. Carrie, a question. When do ever you sleep? Your posts are always early AM. Wow!

    1. Hi Kay! Yes, I’m a real night owl 🦉 and have always been. I do sleep tho — I don’t get up till 10 a.m. at the earliest. I tellya, I’m glad these days to be up and about late at night, when it’s cooler!

  6. LAT: 14:31, 1 dumb error. A decent enough challenge. WSJ: 29 minutes, 3 errors on spots I had to guess on for the confusing nonsense. BEQ: DNF, 37 minutes, 7 errors. Same reasons as the WSJ, but add onto that a confusing nonsensical theme where I had to struggle to understand what he was looking for in a couple of the theme entries that I couldn’t get on crosses (had to get ’em all that way).

  7. Had to Google for VONN (sports). Thought Lindsey was a last name. Man or Woman? Don’t care.

    I didn’t get on yesterday, but I loved the Noah’s Ark theme.

    I might be the last person on Earth who likes liver. And tongue, And hearts. Friendly’s use to serve liver, and Woolworth’s used to seve frog’s legs.

  8. Fun tricky Thursday; took about 45 minutes with one dumb error. I went with hERELIVE…sigh!

    Kept looking at Ysaye with a jaundiced eye, but the crosses definitely fit, so… Glad we finally got someone besides Arlo at Woodstock!

    @Carrie – Wow, Croatia was hot when I finally got around to watching in the 2nd half. I’m undecided, well mostly for Germany’s good neighbor France, but I have some sympathy for Croatia as well. My next-door neighbor is Swiss with a French amie from Le Havre, and she is very sweet. Sucks that the match is at 8AM on a Sunday, but I’ll do it!

    AFA Tyga goes, I guess he lost Jenner and Chyna; when you pull up the video for “Rack City” there is another on the right where he talks about losing both…I couldn’t be bothered. So, how’d you “like” the video?

  9. Hello all!! 🙃
    No errors. Good puzzle! Had HOSE before POLE. I was actually at a firehouse once, and I was struck by the casual way the firefighters used the pole! There wasn’t an emergency, but I guess something on the ground floor needed attention. A couple of guys slid down the pole just so nonchalantly. What an efficient way to get downstairs!! I’ll bet some private homes have them. Or they should!🙄

    Jeff — fascinating story; thank you for sharing it. The Khmer Rouge was so brutal… basically a genocide perpetrated on the Cambodian people. You’ve seen the movie “The Killing Fields,” I imagine. I sometimes wonder what survivors make of that movie. If I remember correctly, the star, Haing S. Ngor, was himself a survivor. He was killed many years later, here in LA. Supposedly he was the victim of a robbery gone bad, tho rumors still abound that he was murdered for his anti Pol Pot activism.

    Be well ~~🌷

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